“I love you too,” she whispered.
“I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”
At a knock on the door, I reluctantly broke away and turned. Dane stood there looking at the floor, clearly not wanting to interrupt. But the man had a job to do, and I wanted it done as soon as possible.
“Hey man, come in.”
“Sorry for interrupting, but you said to stop by.”
“I’m glad you did. Sara, this is Dane, the new fire marshal. Dane, this is Sara. My girlfriend. She owns The Witch’s Brew down on Harbor Street.”
“Nice to meet you, Sara. Though I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances. I’ve actually been in your shop. You make a mean cold brew.”
“Thank you,” she preened. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Dane. How’s my house?”
“I haven’t been able to do a walk-through of the area yet, just a quick preliminary examination.”
“Ah. Well, I’ll see soon enough.”
“Yeah, I guess you will. You mind if we talk about what happened tonight?”
“Not at all.”
“Okay, great. Why don’t you take me through it, and then I’ll ask some follow up questions as needed.”
“All right. Um, Theo slept over. He got a call in the middle of the night. Around three? I think. He had to go into the office. Uh, I guess you know why.”
Dane chuckled. “Yeah, I sure do. Okay, so you were alone then in the house?”
“Yes. I went back to sleep. But then a little while later, I woke up because of the beeping. The smoke detector.”
“The one in the upstairs hall?”
“No, it wasn’t smoky up there. It was the one downstairs in the kitchen. I think that’s why it took me a bit to wake up. I could hear it, but it wasn’t very loud in my bedroom, with the door closed.”
Shit, I was so glad she was a light sleeper. If she hadn’t heard it, she might not have woken up until the smoke and fire reached the second floor. Talk about a close call. I took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Okay, so what did you do next?” Dane asked.
“I touched the doorknob, but it wasn’t hot. I started to leave, but turned back to grab my phone. When I got in the hall, I noticed the window at the back of the house. It was glowing orange. All lit up.” Her eyes filled with tears again, but she blinked them away.
“I knew that the fire was at the back of the house. So I ran to the stairs, called for the fire department. When I got downstairs, I started to breathe in the smoke, so I tried to get low. I had to look for Raven.”
“Raven?”
“My cat.”
“Okay.”
“It all happened so fast but at the time, it felt like I was moving in slow motion. I started to feel lightheaded. But then I found her. At that point, I couldn’t walk, the smoke was too bad, so I got on my knees and crawled. I made it to the door, but that’s all I can remember. When I woke up, I was on a stretcher, hooked up to oxygen. Theo was there.”
“I’m so sorry this happened. But I’m glad you and Raven got out safely.”
“Thank you.”
“So you were asleep soon after Theo left. You don’t remember hearing anything?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Theo, what about you? Did you see or hear anything out of the ordinary on your way out?”
“No. I admit, I wasn’t surveilling the area, but I didn’t notice anything.”
“What about earlier? Were either of you in the backyard last night?”
“I was. I cooked dinner on the grill.”
Dane looked up at that and then made a note on his notepad.
“Gas or charcoal grill?”
“Gas. And before you ask, yes, I turned the burners off and closed the propane valve correctly.”
“You know I have to check all the boxes.”
“I know, man. I’m just trying to get you through it as quickly as possible so we can focus on the real issue.”
“Fair enough. So nothing was left burning? No candles, no piece of food caught in the grate, no fire bowl?”
“No. I cooked outside, but we ate inside. I used a cedar board and foil, so none of the food even touched the grate. No candles. No fire bowls.”
“Okay.”
“Sara, do you remember what time it was when you awoke the second time?”
“No, I remember waking up and thinking it couldn’t have been too much later, because it was still dark. But then I smelled the smoke and jumped into action. Where is my phone? The call time will tell you. I called only a minute or so after I woke up.”
“Okay, good. We can check with dispatch on that. As for your phone, maybe it’s still at the scene. I’ll check with the team when I go down there.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. I hope you feel better soon. I promise we’ll figure this out.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Of course. I’m gonna fast track this as much as I can, but there’s only so much I can do. And if it’s anything like the others, I’m not too optimistic I’ll find any evidence on the scene.”
“Hopefully my guys will be able to find something useful on the cameras.”
“Yeah, I’m hoping so too. I sure didn’t think I’d be this busy here when I took the job.”
“I bet not. But we appreciate you.”